Tina
by SheGotHers-NowHe'llGetHis
Summary: Terry Boot and Lina Tande.
1. Chapter 1

The girl was tall, much taller than the other females in her year. Her hair was dark and fell in waves down her back, and into her dark eyes. She was pale, and skinny, but she had a rather generous chest. Looking at her, your first impression of her might be that she was a cold person, due to the usually blank and uninterested expression on her face. Or maybe you might have found her intimidating. But Lina Tande was neither of these things. In fact, she was really quite passive.

She spent her free time up in her common room (the Hufflepuff common room), reading her many books. She loved her books with a passion, and they were really the only things she felt that she really had. Sure, you could argue that Lina had a friends. Hannah Abbott and Megan Jones often sat with her at mealtimes and in classes, and spoke to her like she was one of them. But really, Lina was a bit of a loner.

She rarely spoke, and when she did it was almost always in a very textbook manner. Short, and to the point.

Lina was a very naive and innocent girl. There were a lot of things she hadn't yet experienced, due to her indifference to everything and everyone around her aside from her books. She'd never gotten into a fight with anyone, never had any rumours passed around about her, and if there had been she probably wouldn't have noticed anyway.

Line was a very curious person, due to her reserved nature. She always wanted to know the reason for things, and what happened because of things. She wanted to know everything she could about everything, and books could only take you so far in the pursuit of complete knowledge.

Which is why what happened in fifth year was so perfect.

It was during the OWL exams, in the middle of her potions exam that she first noticed him. She wasn't doing very well with her calming draught, and had stopped to let her eyes wander the room, and they had found him. And stayed on him for a long while.

His looks were average, at best. His hair a dark mahogany sort of color, and a boyish smile on his face as he handled his ingredients. It was his hands that really drew her attention. The way he moved them was quick precise. They never hesitated or fumbled with anything. He was so sure of himself.

Looking down at her calming draught, which was supposed to be a very light lilac purple but had instead turned out a vivid pink, Lina couldn't help but wonder how that boy was doing this so easily. She'd never had very good grades, but potions had always been her absolute worst class. She couldn't help but feel a little jealous toward the boy, but she also couldn't help but admire him. He must be pretty smart if he could figure something like this out.

After the exam, she waited outside of the door to the great hall for him to come out. And when he did, she didn't say anything, she simply observed him quietly for a second time.

The only distinguishing characteristics she gained from this were his crooked smile, and the fact he was a Ravenclaw.

Surprisingly, she found she wanted nothing more than to know his name.


	2. Chapter 2

Lina wasn't like most girls, so when her admiration towards the Ravenclaw boy grew into a crush, she didn't really notice. And when she did finally notice, she didn't think about it or him all of the time. In fact, he rarely ever crossed her mind. It was exactly the way it always had been before she'd seen him that first time in the OWL exams.

Except that now, she wanted to know his name even more than she had before. Because if this boy was going to be her first crush, she felt she at least had the right to know who she was crushing on. So that morning at breakfast, while Hannah and Megan chatted away on the other side of the table, for the first time, she put her book down.

"Who's that boy over there-? The Ravenclaw. Do you know his name?" She asked quickly and quietly, pointing at the boy, who was sitting at the far end of the Ravenclaw table.

Hannah and Megan both stopped talking at the same time, and Hannah raised her eyebrows at Lina a moment, before looking in the direction she was pointing.

"The one with the black hair? That's Michael Corner." She said simply.

"No, the one next to him. Mahogany colored hair?" Lina specified, putting her hand down on the tabletop.

Hannah craned her neck and her eyes lit up. "Oh, you mean him! That's Terry Boot."

Megan took a bite of an apple, giving Lina a curious expression. "I thought you would know that. He's in our potions class."

Lina knew this already. She'd often found herself glancing up from her book to look at him fleetingly, in class. Though she didn't think about him ad often as other girls thought of their crushes, when they were in the same room together, she nonetheless looked at and thought about him.

"Well, yes, Meg, but she wouldn't really know, would she? She does get lost in her books really easily." Hannah pointed out.

"True."

Not wanting to be pulled further into the conversation, Lina picked her book up, and resumed her reading.

Terry Boot. She'd read that name somewhere before.. She racked her brains, trying to remember where, and then remembered. She'd seen his name on the sign up sheet for dueling club that was tacked to the notice board in the entrance hall.

Smiling to herself, she silently admitted that she was glad to finally know the boy's name.


	3. Chapter 3

Lina went on with her secret crush for Terry for quite some time. The school year ended, summer holidays past, and a new year began. She was fine with him not knowing about it, and she was fine loving him afar when she wasn't busy reading. She liked watching him in potions class, since he now sat right in front of her. The back of his head was perhaps one of the most appealing things she'd ever seen. His hair looked so soft and shiny, and Lina wanted to wrap the curls that brushed the back of his neck around her fingers.

Shaking her head, she focused on her book once again. For some reason, she was finding it harder to focus on the Tuck family, and had an urge to look back up and just stare at the back of Terry's head all class.

She thought back to long it had been since she'd first seen Terry. It had been roughly ten months... She wondered how long this would last. She'd fully expected these feelings she had for him to go away after a few months, but now it had almost been a year. She wondered if they would ever go away..

At the back of her mind, she wished they would stay forever.

Terry couldn't help but feel like he was being watched, though when he looked around, everyone was always focused on their own work. He tried shrugging it off a few times, and focusing on his draught of living death, but he couldn't shake the feeling.

Finally understanding, he sat up straight and twisted his torso around to look behind him. He found himself looking into a pair of big, brown eyes. These eyes belonged to a very pretty face, one with wavy dark brown hair framing it. The girl was a Hufflepuff, according to her tie.

He could tell immediately that this girl wasn't usual. He was looking right at her, had caught her staring at him, and yet she didn't look away. She didn't blink, or blush, or look embarassed at all.

Rather, she tilted sightly to the right, causing her hair to bounce attractively, and looked at him curiously.

Terry opened his mouth to say something, but class ended and she was gone before he got his chance.


	4. Chapter 4

Every potions class, Terry had the same feeling that someone was watching him.. But this time he knew who it was. The girl sitting behind him was always the one who was watching him, he now knew. The one with the startlingly big brown eyes, and the long wavy hair. Every class he tried to work up the courage to turn around and face those eyes, again, but ever class ended before he could.

He wondered who the girl was and why she was always looking at him. Did he have something on his back?

Terry reached his hand over his shoulder and felt as much of his back as he could reach, finding nothing. Shaking his head, he returned to mixing his potion, hoping to finish it before the end of class. Terry just managed to finish it not even seconds before class ended, and hurriedly got up and turned to leave.

He was immediately hit with the full force of those huge, dark brown eyes. The girl who was usually first out of class was still seated, today, bent over her cauldron with that same blank expression on her face as usual. Terry could see, however, the frustration in her eyes.

Professor Slughorn walked by, and gave the girl a pat on the shoulder "Watch the classroom a moment? Hopefully your potion will be finished when I get back."

And then he left them alone.

Shaking himself out of it, he lowered his gaze to her potion, which was supposed to be a dark navy blue.. But which she had somehow managed to turn yellow.

Without permission, he sat next to her, and took her cauldron from her. She looked at him curiously, tilting her head to one side "What are you doing, Terry..?"

She knew his name. Terry had never been good with girls, he'd always been awkward and shy around them and for some reason, this girl made it even worse. "Just.. Just fixing this for you. Um."

She didn't ask anything else, but she watched him the whole ten minutes it took him to straighten out her potion. Terry felt his face grow hotter and hotter as the time went by, and could only imagine in horror how dark a red his cheeks be.

Hurriedly, he poured some of it into a vial and corked it, handing it to the girl. "Here," he mumbled. "Your welcome."

He almost made it to safely out before being stopped dead in his tracks by her clear, unwavering voice "Thank you, Terry."

He didn't dare turn around and face those eyes again. Gulping and clearing his throat, he left in a rush.

Lina Tande couldn't help but smile as the mahogany-haired boy ran from the room. When he was gone, she looked curiously down at the vial of potion in her hand. Why would Terry help her? She was positive he didn't even know her name.

Lina made her way to the front of the class and write her name on the vial before placing it with the others, making a point of putting it next to Terry's.


End file.
